


Winds Change

by koolmcr



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff, Lesbian Character, Love, Music, just a nice time playing music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29152608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koolmcr/pseuds/koolmcr
Summary: "A small toy guitar? I like it, but wouldn't that be more JJ's size?" Ellie scratches her head with her free hand, stubs tangled in the nest of auburn."The trader said it's called a 'ukulele'. It kinda is like a small guitar, I guess. I thought you'd like it." Dina smiles, trying her best to hold the dark wooded instrument how she's seen Ellie hold a guitar.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	Winds Change

"Hey guys, I'm back!" 

Ellie's ears tingle at her wife's words. "Come on, Potato. Mama's back. Let's go see her!" She wipes her hands on a rag and picks excited her son up from the chair in front of her; the new portrait she's making of him can be finished later. They bounce down the steps effortlessly, with Dina's lips waiting for Ellie's at the bottom. 

"Hey. How was town?"

"Same as ever. I got the soap we needed. Also-" Dina takes her backpack off of her shoulders, a little section of wood preventing it from being zippered. "-I got you a present."

"Oh? What is it?"

The dark haired woman unzips the bag and produces...something. 

"A small toy guitar? I like it, but wouldn't that be more JJ's size?" Ellie scratches her head with her free hand, stubs tangled in the nest of auburn. 

"The trader said it's called a 'ukulele'. It kinda is like a small guitar, I guess. I thought you'd like it." Dina smiles, trying her best to hold the dark wooded instrument how she's seen Ellie hold a guitar. She strums it clumsily, JJ babbling excitedly from Ellie's arms. It sounds bright and small. 

"You like that? Mama's pretty talented, huh?" Her son claps and grabs for the clear strings, Dina quick to hold his chubby hand in place. "I'll trade ya, El. I missed my boy."

They shift the ukulele and JJ. It feels too small in Ellie's hands. 

"I don't know, D. You know I don't really play guitar anymore."

"Yeah, but this isn't a guitar."

"It looks close enough."

Dina coos at her son and walks towards the kitchen. "Did you guys eat lunch yet?"

Ellie follows. "Yeah. Made some sandwiches. I made you one. It's in the fridge." She stands a little dumbly in the doorway. 

Dina smiles and leans to kiss her wife's cheek in thanks. "I know guitar isn't really your thing anymore. I just thought that this could be something different. The guy wrote me down some stuff...'chord charts' I think he said. He said it was easier to learn than guitar. Don't have to use as many..." She trails off, eyes flinching to Ellie's left hand. 

Her green eyes look away at the sink, two plates laying in it. She crosses her arms to hide her mangled hand. "Okay."

"I'll, uh, put it on the table for you later, sweetheart." Another kiss on the cheek, a little more tense. "I love you. Thank you for making me lunch."

"I love you, too. I'm gonna go back up to the studio. Was painting when you walked in, gotta clean up." She turns and walks, setting the ukulele on the coffee table before she ascends the stairs. When she gets into the room, she shuts the door. Her eyes fix on the black guitar case in the corner. A layer of dust has been forming on it in the months since they've all returned to the farm. 

It wasn't that she didn't want to play music anymore. Hell, it wasn't even that playing guitar brought back memories of Joel. Those were mostly _good_ memories that she wanted to hold on to, feel close to. She just couldn't bring herself to. Not after Abby. Not after what she'd lost, physically. 

Dina'd suggested playing with the guitar held the other way, but it was too uncomfortable. If she practiced enough, maybe it would be fine. But the way her back curved from playing left handed wasn't something she'd ever get used to. The pain was too much. It's been a while since that attempt. 

She sighs as she puts the paint tubes away in a drawer and gets out the canister of turpentine to clean her brushes. It's almost empty. She's gonna have to trade for more soon. _Fuck it_ , she thinks as she sits back down. JJ's facial features are outlined pretty well. The paint drawer opens back up. She can do the rest from memory. 

* * *

The sun casts an orange haze in Ellie's studio when she decides she's done. Her son's smile captured in oil and pigment, hair looking a lot like his father's. They've gotta get the first haircut done at some point, but he squirms and screams "No!" every time they try to strap him down in the highchair. Maybe Ellie can do it when he's asleep. But she'd probably fuck it up and Dina'd have to fix it. 

After actually cleaning up this time, she stumbles out of the room and down the stairs. Her wife and son are lounging on the couch in the den in an accidental mother-son nap. Dina lays with her right arm curled over her head and JJ lays on top of her in the same position. It's fucking adorable and Ellie wishes she had a camera. Instead, she tiptoes away to get her journal to sketch them, coming back down the creaking steps as silent as she can. She plops in Dina's desk chair and starts. Maybe it'll make a nice painting someday, too. 

Just as she's working on Dina's facial features, the woman stirs. "Hungh. Bud you're heavy." She moves her arm to rustle the child awake, trying to sit up. She notices Ellie and the moving pencil. 

"Oh, hey you. How long have you been there?"

"Eh, like ten minutes. You guys were laying really cute." She lifts the book to give Dina a view.

"Ha. Well, I guess story time got us both sleepy. What time is it?"

"Nearly sundown."

"Shit, we gotta get started on dinner."

JJ blinks a few times, dazed at being woken up. He notices Ellie first thing, too, reaching for her. 

"Ma!"

"Hey spud. Have a good nap?" She hugs her son, feeling the tickle of his hair. 

"Yeah!"

Dina gets up, stretching. "You okay, El? You spent a while cleaning up up there."

"Yeah. I decided to finish the portrait I was working on."

The family moves to the kitchen. Ellie builds a tower of blocks on the table to preoccupy JJ as Dina cuts up carrots. He knocks the wooded cubes down and they land scattered. As Ellie gathers them up, she notices the chord chart underneath it, pausing. 

"You gonna go into demolition and construction there, son?" Dina speaks up from the kitchen, steam hitting her face from the stew. He laughs and reaches for the block in Ellie's hand. She's too preoccupied with the symbols and letters. The C looks so much easier...

"Mama! C'mon!" JJ's doing grabby hands directly in front of Ellie's eyes. 

"C'mon, what?"

"Please!"

"Okay, since you asked so nicely." She deposits the block in the pile in front of him, still staring at the paper. 

"Hey, El? Can you light the lamps out there so we're not eating in the dark?"

"Sure thing."

Ellie pushes up out of the chair and gets the lamps in the dining room. The ukulele catches her eyes as she turns, still on the coffee table from earlier. Despite herself, she wants to try it out. Can it really be that easy? Moving towards the rapidly progressing darkness of the living room, she sits herself on the couch and reaches out for the instrument. 

Holding it in playing position, it still feels so small. She gives it a quick strum. The paper sitting on the table in front of her says "GCEA" for the tuning. It sounds about right to her ears. Way higher pitched than any noise she's ever made before. The sound makes JJ giggle as Dina comes into the dining room, kissing his head. 

"Is Mama gonna play something for us?"

Ellie bites her lip. 

"I'm just messing around."

The dark haired woman sits with her son, facing Ellie in shadow. "Well, dinner's still, like, ten minutes out."

Her hair looks almost the same shade as Dina's with the sun set, the sky bruising. She nods and leans forward, squinting at the paper. 

C. One string. One finger. The middle finger on her left hand presses down on the last string on the third fret. It's way less coarse than a guitar's strings. She wonders for a moment what they're made out of before she strums with her right thumb. 

Oh. That's definitely a C. A plucky, high one. But a C. 

"That sounds like something." Dina smiles, building the blocks up with her son while glancing into the kitchen. 

"Yeah, yeah."

Ellie limps her dominant wrist at her wife and presses on. The F...a little more complex, but still only two fingers needed. Index on the third, thumb on the top. Another strum, and again, that's it. Huh. 

The chart isn't all encompassing, but it's got most of the major and minor chords. She cycles through them. She can't really do a G or a B fully, but what she can do doesn't sound half bad to her ears. 

When dinner's ready she stops and helps clear up the table for the plates. She does the dishes as her wife moves back into the den with their son, always playing. Always energetic. She can't believe how much he's grown. He's gonna be two soon and it blows her mind. 

The small family continues to spend time and play together by oil lamp and moonlight. It's everything Ellie wants. She can't believe she could have ever wanted anything other than seeing Dina's dark eyes beam at their son's crayon creations. Soon, JJ is yawning and Ellie takes him up to their room. He's getting too big for his old crib. Maybe one of these days, they'd move him into the studio. But neither woman feels too safe with that idea just yet. Maybe they could just get a small bed for their room and have him sleep there, only for a little while longer. She tucks him in as he starts to suck his thumb, already in dreamland. 

As she shambles back down the stairs, she hears the newly familiar sound of bright strings. Dina's in the living room, leaning to look at the chord chart herself. 

"What're you up to?"

"Well, I got the thing, didn't I? Only seems fair that I try it out."

Ellie sits gently on the couch next to her. 

"What you got so far?"

Her wife just strums openly, a guilty smile on her lips. 

"I can't really understand what these things mean on the paper."

"Well, the long lines are the strings. The spaces between the short lines are the frets. The dots are where you hold your fingers down."

"Oh."

She strums without holding down any strings again. Ellie rolls her eyes a little. 

"You want me to teach you?"

"When did you become the ukulele master? The ten minutes before dinner?"

"It's pretty similar to the guitar."

Dina hands it over to her wife. 

"Well, show me something."

Ellie's a little nervous, on the spot. 

"It's not gonna be perfect."

She breathes in big, Dina's dark eyes attentive. 

"Okay, see where my finger is? That's a C chord." She strums, then shifts her fingers. "This is an F." 

"Damn, you're a quick learner El."

"I'm teaching _you_ here, you're supposed to be the one learning."

"Keep going, then."

She does. She goes through those two a few times and adds in an A minor. There's a swimming in her mind, words she hadn't thought of in a while. She shifts back to C and on instinct, starts singing. 

"If I ever were to lose you..."

It's not as intricate as it is on guitar. She stops. 

"Why'd you stop?" 

Dina's looking at her and there's only love in her eyes. Ellie can't meet them. 

"Sorry. I didn't mean to start singing."

"I like hearing you sing. I love your voice."

She laughs at that one. "Babe, I sound like a kid still."

"I don't think that."

There's a hand rubbing her shoulder, and she finally meets those dark eyes. They remind her of something. Night. Fire. Alcohol. Green. Rotting floors. 

"Do you really want me to sing you something?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to. But, I'd love to hear you."

Ellie starts strumming an F for a few bars. "You've heard this one before. It's not gonna be as pretty."

"Well, you're already beautiful so whatever you play'll be beautiful." Dina smiles and Ellie blushes, taking her eyes away and down to her left hand on the neck of the ukulele. 

"Okay."

She starts at an F again. 

"We're talking away."

Switch to G. Her stub brushes against the bottom of the neck, her phantom finger reaching for the string. It doesn't sound full with just two fingers, but Ellie tries not to think about that and focuses on the words coming out of her mouth as she moves to a C. 

"I don't know what-" A Minor "I'm to say."

The song's only four chords, but she stumbles a little bit. The transition in size and finger placement wasn't going to be perfect, even if she still had a full hand to work with. It sounds so simple to Ellie's ears and she's almost embarrassed. She knows she can do better, she can finger pick, do _something_. But Dina's mooning over her, so she can't be too hard on herself. 

"In a day or two." She ends where she started on the F, barely finishing as Dina throws her arms around her neck and kisses her. 

"That's our song."

"Is it? I thought that Crooked Still one was our song."

"We can have more than one song!" She kisses Ellie again so hard that the light eyed girl thinks she might pass out. Dina pulls back with the biggest smile. 

"I love you so much, Ellie. You're so good."

"I'm just me."

"Well 'just you' is amazing and wonderful and I love you." Dina grabs the ukulele out of Ellie's hands and starts putting her fingers where Ellie's were. "You gotta show me how to play that."

"Right now?"

"No time but the present."

The auburn haired woman smiles and moves her wife's fingers in position. "Well, this is the F."

**Author's Note:**

> an ode to switching from guitar to ukulele. also rip at me playing different chords on ukulele for these songs than the game has for them on guitar. it's fine.


End file.
